10 Reasons SummerSlam Will Be WWE's Best Show Of 2016
WrestleMania? Never heard of it.
WWE SummerSlam 2016 is shaping-up to be an outstanding show. It’s easy to be cynical about the company’s product in this day and age, but few can argue that WWE have done a fantastic job in building towards this Sunday’s pay-per-view. If all goes to plan, fans are in for a treat.
The four-hour show is stuffed to the brim with 11 individual matches, and while a handful will be assigned to the two-hour pre-show, there’s a lot to get through. SummerSlam is going to be a huge show, and the kind that could easily drag if things start to go wrong, but there’s little to suggest it will. There’s a story and a reason behind every single match, and with the bulk of WWE’s most talented performers on display, SummerSlam shouldn’t produce a single dull moment.
Would it be nice to have seen Sami Zayn and Bray Wyatt on the card? Absolutely, but there’s only so much space, and the quality laced through SummerSlam’s fantastic line-up tempers that disappointment. Royal Rumble and WrestleMania were let downs, but WWE’s third “big four” show of 2016 is a mouthwatering prospect, and a testament to the subtle improvements WWE have been making since the Draft.
Here are 10 reasons why SummerSlam will be WWE’s best show of 2016.
10. The Lack Of Competition
WWE’s pay-per-view quality has improved steadily since WrestleMania 32’s rank disappointment. Extreme Rules, Money in the Bank, and Battleground have each bettered the last, with Battleground a particular highlight of WWE’s year thus far. The show produced a genuine Match of the Year candidate between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and while the long-awaited Shield triple threat could’ve benefited from a stronger build, the match itself didn’t disappoint.
Despite these improvements, it’d be a big stretch to call any of these shows legitimately “great.” For all Battleground’s good points, the show still featured two utterly pointless matches between Rusev and Zack Ryder, and The Miz and Darren Young. Going further back, the Rumble finished with Triple H standing tall (an outcome fans only accepted because he’s not Roman Reigns), and the less said about ‘Mania, the better.
WWE simply haven’t produced a consistent pay-per-view from top to bottom this year. Even the better shows have had their frustrations, and while SummerSlam will undoubtedly produce a few quibbles here and there, there just isn’t much competition in WWE’s “Show of the Year” stakes. None of WWE’s 2016 PPVs can match SummerSlam on-paper, and provided the company don’t do anything daft (which is always a possibility, let’s be honest), there’s no reason why Sunday’s show can’t eclipse the competition.